The present application relates to a microscope having an image processing unit which determines a processing area in image data and an area determination method of determining a processing area in image data.
With the advent of the Internet, telepathology in which a doctor at a remote site performs pathological diagnosis by using a network has been provided. Due to the telepathology, a pathologist at a remote site manipulates microscopic images of body tissues to make a medical diagnosis. Recently, broadband telecommunication and large-capacity storage have been implemented, such that digital data of an entire tissue on a slide glass may be obtained. In addition, digital pathology in which pathological information is managed and analyzed has been employed, so that the improvement of the quality and efficiency of pathological practice is expected. For example, a virtual slide obtained as digital data of the slide glass by the digital pathology may be used not only as information exchanged between pathologists but also as teaching materials. In addition, in digital pathology, the virtual slide may be automatically produced by a virtual slide apparatus, so that it is possible to improve the efficiency of the task.
For example, as illustrated in FIG. 24, the virtual slide apparatus illuminates the entire slide glass 16, on which a living body sample is mounted, with a backlight 15 disposed at the opposite side with respect to the image capturing device 13. Next, the entire slide glass 16 is image-captured by an image capturing device 13 through an image forming lens 12, so that a digital image (virtual slide) is obtained. A label 16a where information such as a name of the living body sample on the slide glass 16 is written, a cover glass 16b covering the living body sample, or the like is disposed in the slide glass 16. The produced digital image of the entire slide glass 16 is stored in a hard disk drive or a removable media. A user may observe the stored image by using a personal computer 11 or the like. Since the living body samples are managed as digital images, it is easy to search for the desired living body sample among a large number of living body samples and to observe the desired living body sample. In addition, even at a remote site, it is possible to observe the living body sample (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-133311).
When the virtual slide is produced, first, the virtual slide apparatus captures a thumbnail image (slightly-magnified image) to determine an image capturing area where a high-magnification image (largely-magnified image) is to be acquired. The image capturing area may be detected by using a well-recognized automatic area detection algorithm. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 25, a portion of the area including the living body sample (hereinafter, referred to as a “sample”) 21 in the thumbnail image is determined as the image capturing area 22. Next, the virtual slide apparatus performs acquisition of the high-magnification image on the determined image capturing area.